Friday, 29 February 2008

In between our rides at the theme park, we hurried off for a quick dinner instead of going to our regular place. Not so sure what to have we decided to head over to Highlands Hotel to check out the eating places since hubby didn't want to walk so far to First World. Found this Restoran Good Friends Express since I didn't want to wait and order dishes from the restaurant under the same name next door.

This Good Friends Express is a self-service fast food restaurant ala Chinese. All you need to do is place your order and pay at the cashier. Then you move down the line to collect your order. The menu is not super extensive but good enough to satisfy everyone in the family if they do not want to eat the same dishes. There are noodles, rice and porridge (congee) accompanied with roast chicken, roast duck, bbq pork (char siew), roast pork (siew yuk), dumplings (sui kow), or wanton. Also in the offering are sizzling noodles, porridge and etc.

I've asked for the Pork Rib Rice (RM12.00) which came like this...

I had as shocked when I look at it hahaha... look darn pathetic huh? I dug the ribs a bit and had a taste. Hey, not bad actually!!! I must remind myself not to judge a book by its cover. The ribs are steamed with fermented yellow bean sauce and fermented black bean with bits of tomatoes in there. The slight tang from the tomatoes lend a nice flavour to the ribs.

Boiboi had a bowl of Wanton Soup (RM8.00). Nothing spectacular here cos the daddy actually ordered the wrong thing for him. I've asked him to get Dumplings Soup, well... anyway he ate them up but can't finish since his heart longed to get back to the theme park ASAP.

The daddy gotten himself Claypot Chicken Rice (RM14.00) which took 10 mins to cook up. I didn't try any but he said its edible, nothing great.

I checked around the neighbouring patrons, seems like their fresh noodles (sang meen) in dry style looked good and smell like any delicious wanton mee in town. I won't say the food is fantastic cos it's expected in such kind of place but it's great for something quick. Quite pricey too. By the way, order of noodles and rice will come with a drink which I think it's not too bad.

Thursday, 28 February 2008

Last weekend I had to FFK the JFKA session cos we decided to drive up the hill for some, well I won't say it's relaxing, perhaps... fun? Hubby and I were happy cos boiboi said he was super duper happy. I'm sure he does but seriously it's not that fun anymore, for me at least, going round and round on children rides... quite harrowing when you have a crazy little terrorist that spin the bloody teacup in detrimental speed!!! We were glad to see him smiling ear-to-ear bumping around in the children bumper car ride. He did that 3 rounds before we dragged him away for dinner (more on that later). Being the kiasu parent, we maximised our money by going for more rides after out dinner since the park opens till 10.00pm these days, making sure we don't picked those that can churn our tummy and say hello to the trash can at the end of the ride. Boy, I was glad that there wasn't that many people at the park after 7.00pm. We practically occupied most of the rides all by ourselves! Shiok hahaha... no queue and don't even need to get our butt off and the attendants willingly set another round for us. So I guess that must be the tip to avoid crowds plus the admission is cheaper after 7.00pm.

Anyway, this post is not about the park definitely, this is a food blog afterall hehe. Most times on our way up to Genting Highlands, we will drop by at Yik Kee at Gohtong Jaya to grab some pastries. Our first visit to Yik Kee, aeons ago was on our way to Cherating in the little Karak town. That was when we tasted our very first durian tart, fell in love with them over and over again. The proprietor's son had informed us that the durian used are from their own durian orchard and they are of D24 variety. You can get durian tarts 365 days here cos they freeze their supplies for the pastries.

Last weekend, we were surprised to see a soft-served ice-cream machine up front of the shop. There were 2 flavours available, chocolate and of course durian. My boiboi opted for chocolate which is good and hubby of course got the durian one. I forgot how much but the durian alone is RM2.40 which came in a huge blob on top of the cone unlike the tiny little blob at Ikea's. I have to say the durian ice-cream is very very yummy, full of REAL durian flavour. Much better than New Zealand Ice-cream's Durian Flo!!! You can opt to have a mixture of the 2 flavours.

The star attraction are of course these babies... durian tarts.

Please excuse for the cracks hahaha the result of swinging and swaying going up the hill. The custard is incredibily creamy and rich with durian flesh. I didn't like the pastry though, it's of the shortcrust kind and I can taste the margarine in them. If I can have my way, I would have just scoop out the durian custard and eat them like it is but I won't of course as it's sinful to waste food :p I've tasted Happy Meal version but still I find Yik Kee's better.

Had wanted to try the durian bombs but so far haven't got the chance. They're always sold out! No durian cake available either. Got a kaya swiss roll instead which I had always liked. The cake texture is finer than Yut Kee's and looks better too but Yut Kee won in terms of fragrant for cake.

I remember Miss Sweet 16 had told me many times that Yik Kee is famous for their siew bao (baked bun) but not sure why we never bothered with them. Karak is her dad's hometown, so she should know better huh??? I gotten a couple each of the chicken (with sesame seeds topping) and pork siew baos. Hubby had the pork one there and then... aiks the pastry is too thick and has very little filling. I tried one chicken siew bao in the car which had very thick pastry as well but I have to say the filling was tasty.

Are you drooling over the durian tarts? With 2 branches in the Klang Valley, you need not go Karak nor Gohtong Jaya for them. Head over to their PJ or TTDI branch to check them out. However, please call them first cos I was told the TTDI branch doesn't have these tarts but have durian pancake instead, not sure what's the latest happening.

Taman Tun Dr Ismail Branch(Sorry, I've tried to search for the addy but couldn't find but managed to get the coordinates haha, so you gotta whip out your GPS! If not mistaken it's behind Shakey's.)Location: N3.142092 E101.629692

Tuesday, 26 February 2008

Remember my hot date with Paprika? The one I received a hot-off the oven, yummilicious chocolate cupcake from her??? Anyway, I did get the 500 Cupcakes & Muffins not long after and yes I've tried that recipe earlier but failed tremendously. I followed the recipe and my cupcakes came out tasting like cocoa powder instead of fudgey and goey. I've over baked them as I followed the recipe to the T!

I got round to make them again and this time I only baked them for about 12 mins. They came out perfectly chocolatey, fudgey and moist! No doubt they don't contain eggs or sugar but don't think of them as healthy alternative as the amount of butter and condensed milk used are very high. The usage of cola is of no help either hehehe. This time, I've used vanilla coke so I omitted vanilla essence. Strangely I did not taste the coke this time as compared to the last one when I made with the usual flavour. Other than cola, you can practically uses anything sparkling like water or apple juice. Just experiment there a bit. Also, remember to leave them to cool in the muffin tray for 5 mins before removing else the cake will leave the casing.

All my taste bunnies gave thumbs up except for one who is not a chocolate lover. My boiboi had a whale of time licking the batter off the beater, the only time I allowed him to since this doesn't contain eggs. He always ask to lick the batter which I won't let him as most cake batters contains raw eggs. I think he watched too much telly!

Monday, 25 February 2008

Come lunch time, Changkat Ceylon, Lorong Ceylon and Jalan Mesui will be abuzz with activities. It is very popular amongst the office workers around this area to have their lunch at the hawkers at these stretches. I used to come here very often when my office was nearer. These days I will only come here once in a long while due to the distance.

There are a lot of good stuff around here ranging from the mixed rice stall located within a Chinese temple along Changkat Ceylon (that leads to Wisma MPL's carpark) which sells vegetarian dishes on the 1st and 15th of the lunar calendar. No doubt the dishes are very tasty but it's super duper expensive, hence we will shun this place as much as we can as sometimes the price can be very ridiculous. Right outside this stall, there is a row of hawker stalls. The first one is a mamak which does quite an ok mee goreng.

Next to this mamak is a Chinese noodle stalls offering wantan noodles, pan meen etc and on Fridays, they serve this bowl of prawn mee...

Looks good eh??? Lots of huge prawns (I think 5 pieces) topped the noodles that came with generous amount of kangkung that I liked. They don't have pork slices nor ribs (unlike the one behind Yut Kee) though which I don't mind. The broth is quite all right but of course can't beat the ultimate one at Jalan San Peng. This bowl cost RM5.00 and only avaible on Fridays. One tip on eating at this stall... you should only come here when it's not crowded and almost every table have been served. Otherwise it will be a long wait before your noodles arrive. It's not pleasant sitting underneath the hot zinc roof.

I had that bowl of noodles last Friday, came teatime, I devoured this yummy banana walnut cupcake. Thank you Yozora. Am so shy now cos my cupcakes are really lacking in presentation. Look at hers... nicely crowned with walnuts!

Okie back to the hawkers haha... The scenario at the next stall is right about the same. They serve curry laksa, fish paste noodles and so forth. The wait is as long and pretty chaotic with their orders.

Next, along Lorong Ceylon opposite Menara PMI, you'll noticed its rather smokey cause this Malay mixed rice stall specialises in ikan bakar (bbq fish). You can find lots of fish choices here ie. kembung, keli, pari, cencaru etc etc. They're all well marinated and go well with the air assam (tamarind juice with chopped onions and cili padi) or the sambal. Other than ikan bakar, I loved the Malay dishes here too. Prices of fish will go according to the market price. This plate below of one huge cencaru, some soybean sprouts and half portion of rice plus a glass of iced lime juice costed RM6.50 but thanks to JT for paying my lunch that day.

Behind this stall, is a carpark which housed my favourite Indian stall under the yumyum tree. The Indian style of food here is more like homecooked food according to my Indian colleagues. I hardly see such dishes at other Indian stalls or restaurants. I loved the deepfried tenggiri slices topped with the special minced cili padi concoction (looked spicy but not all the time tasted hot), flaked kembung fried in onions and grated coconut with green chillies (I'm drooling now), tofu cooked in sweetish sourish tomato sauce, the various stir-fried vegetables that I can't name but some of them have dhal and grated coconuts in them and they don't cook the vege until they turned yellow. I spied Yasmin Ahmad here once having lunch with her colleagues. Be early though as the food tend to finishes by 1.15pm. BTW, the sister's stall is located at the open air food court in Menara Boustead Parking Annex. All the cooking is done here before sending over to the stall.

Next to the ikan bakar stall, there is an uncle selling tau foo far (soybean curd) and tau cheong sui (soybean milk). This uncle serves a wicked cold soybean milk with gula melaka syrup. I've done the warm version but it just doesn't kick.

Along Jalan Mesui, housed the famous No Black Tie, Palate Palette (which used to be Doodee that is now operating as The Elephant at Happy Mansion, Petaling Jaya) and Lightworks. Other than these funky places, you can find a "nothing to shout about" chicken rice stall; futher down towards Palate Palette... a couple of aunties selling Chinese mixed rice that I really liked cos the food really tasted homecooked and the variety of dishes changes along the week. I hardly visit these days cos by the time I walk here, the dishes would have all long gone! 2 doors away is the shoplot that sells yue wart meen (fish paste noodles) or pork noodles. If not for the difficulty to grab a seat and stuffiness, I don't mind eating here. There is a wantan mee stall here as well but I've never tried them out. If not mistaken there is a vegetarian mixed rice stall in the very same shop.

So that concludes my walkabout of hawkers in this area. Anyone game to join me for lunch?

Thursday, 21 February 2008

Today is Yuanxiao (in Mandarin, Yuan literarily means "First" while Xiao refers to "night") Festival, more popularily known as Chap Goh Mei (in Hokkien). This is the last day the lunar new year is celebrated, the song I meant here is Yee Sang (raw fish in Cantonese) haha cos we'll need to wait for another year before we can savour this delicacy again. Errrr but in my case, this may not be my last cos I'm having a dinner tonight :p

Earlier, I had lunch with Mr Chairman and the Evil Cow at Restoran Hong Ngek which we visit once in a while. How irony my first review on Hong Ngek was round about Chinese New Year too and with the same few people as well!

Luckily Mr Chairman called earlier to book a table else we would be left stranded without one as the place is packed to the brim. Again, we ordered half portion of yee sang even though there are 3 of us! Ahem, we did finished them all actually. So far this is one of the better place for yee sang... so many slices of fish and the balance of sauce and ingredients were just right.

Mr Chairman ordered a pork ribs dish... which is succulent, tender and flavourful. Each of us have one piece and I would say they are generous in size. There is a slight spicy taste on the caramalised marinade that clinged on the ribs. Absolutely fingers licking good!

Next, we have a dish that have a little vegetables, a little seafood, and a little tofu. A perfect dish of a little of everything for the 3 of us. I'm not sure what's the name of this dish but it's one of those CNY dish lah that have fish maw, dried oyster, clams, black mushroom, dao bao (made of soy bean sheets), fatt choy (black moss), Chinese cabbage and broccoli. The slight starchy gravy is sooo tasty that I flooded my rice with them.

The lunch with 2 bowls of rice and tea for all costed around RM67. I took a peep when Mr Chairman was paying. Thank you Mr Chairman for the lovely lunch.

Wednesday, 20 February 2008

Yeah, I know, it sounded weird... Chicken in Milk but this is Jamie Oliver we're talking about heh. Had wanted to tried this recipe from Happy Days With The Naked Chef for ages cos sometimes I do like to challenge myself with weird stuff at the expense of my home test bunnies (my poor boiboi and hubby hehe).

I got some chicken thighs meant for roasting but kinda bored with the same old butter, rosemary and lemon routine. Since I have four thighs, I made two by stuffing butter, rosemary and lemon slices underneath the skin, well just to be save in case my Test Bunny Jr have nothing for dinner. Placed them over some pumpkin and roasted in the oven.

With the recipe from the same book, made a simple salad of cucumber and carrot ribbons done by using a peeler dressed with soy sauce, apple cider vinegar and fresh ginger strips to go with the roasts.

Verdicts: Test Bunny Jr and I loved the weird combi of chicken and milk. I think I've poured in too much milk hence you can see lots of "gravy" swimming in the tray, plus it was low-fat milk so it did not have that creamy looking gravy as seen in the book. Test Bunny Jr asked for seconds with loads of milky gravy poured over. Actually me and him were practically drinking away the fragrant gravy.

Test Bunny Sr was curious why one tray has so much gravy and the other had none. He asked me what's inside the gravy. The moment I mentioned milk, his mind went on a shutdown mode. He gave me THE look... nehhh that "OMG this woman I had married had gone NUTS" look. Hehe he's more of a conventional guy, preferred to stick to normal things, so he only liked the usual roast (sooo boring!). However, he did give me a bit of face by trying some.

In the end, I asked both test bunnies to point out which one they liked best... the senior one pointed at the boring roast whilst the junior one needless to say aimed his finger at the milky one! Atta boy!!!

Monday, 18 February 2008

This year Fatty Sang has set dinner planned for Chinese New Year. My mother decided to book the RM398 set, the most expensive set available as the boss said this is the most value for money set. Anyway, yeah it's cheap cos this is a no frill, no aircon nor any specific wait staff assigned to your table heh!

To cut all the craps, let's get on to the food. First up is of course the yue sang. The salmon fish slices was in an almost frozen state but the overall mixture is quite all right.

The second course is a 5 varieties platter. The deep fried stuff were nice but a bit salty for us since we're more used to blander food.

Next up was the sharks fin soup. I know it's not environmentally friendly but I doubt these are the real thing. I liked this soup cos it's not starchy at all and has loads of shredded dried scallops. The soup alone is flavourful enough that I did not need to add in any black vinegar or pickled green chillies.

Then we were served this fish, not sure of the name but in Cantonese it's 7 sing parn (7 star). It's just steamed plainly with soy sauce which is a good thing as it doesn't mask the sweetness of the flesh.

We have a plate of prawns in 2 styles, one tasted like marmite but mom said it's soy sauce. The other one has mayo on them. I prefered the soy sauce one.

Next came this dish that have abalone slices and sea cucumber. Errr the dish was massacred before the turntable reached my side. Since I don't like sea cucumber, I reserved my comments for this dish. Judging from the speed of it disappearing, I guess it must have been delish.

We were served the customary vegetarian dish that looked extremely hairy awful hahaha... underneath the pile of black moss (fatt choy) were glutens, beancurd sheets (dao bao) and vegetables. The serving is actually quite huge cos by this dish, everyone slowed down.

We were so stuffed by time the glutinous rice steamed in lotus leaf arrived. I just took one bite and the rice is too soft to taste the "Q"ness. Flavour is ok but not much ingredient in there I think but then I did not dig in.

The dinner ended with a bowl of chilled herbal sweet soup that have dried longan, and honey sea coconut other than herbs. Since my parents were regular there, we were given a plate of complimentary agar-agar. Sorry, no pictures for both as my boiboi took my digicam and fooled around with it.

The food is generally ok but I prefered their ala carte instead as the set have some hits and misses but one can't please everyone yeah?

Oh thank you, thank you, my saviour for adding something delish to my otherwise boring lunch that only a horse would eat! Yozora gave me 4 slices of yam cake (woo tau koh) this morning and I heated it up for lunch. Had wanted to save 2 slices for hubby but the yam cake is sooo nice that I gobbled up everything hehehe. After eating such delicious yam cake, I chewed on my horse food... sighhhh. What a huge difference!!!

Friday, 15 February 2008

I just got hit by the lazy bug!!! So today only showing some Chinese New Year goodies. With the exception of the chocolate chip cookies, the rest were given to me by friends and relatives. Did you see those carrots??? They're another form of pineapple tarts made by my friend!!! Clever huh? The stems are dyed almond nibs.

Preheat oven to 175C. Place 12 baking cases in a muffin tray. In a large bowl, combine all cupcake ingredients. Beat on a low speed with electric whisk until ingredients are combined. I've just use normal whisk, worked as well.

Spoon mixture into cases until two thirds full. Bake for 20o minutes. Remove tin and cool for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes and cool on a rack.

To make the icing, combine cream cheese with icing sugar and vanilla with an electric whisk. Beat till smooth and creamy. Fold in the walnuts. Smear onto cooled cupcakes and garnish with walnut halves.

Store without icing in an airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze up till 3 months. My recommendation is to place them in the fridge after the second day.

Wednesday, 13 February 2008

The kiosk has shifted to Ikano Power Centre, opposite A&W or beside Uncle Lim

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After our share-share dinner, we bumped into my ex-colleague at one of those kiosks at LG, Midvalley Megamall. I was surprised to see him busy selling his wares there hahaha... but it's a good thing! I was quite happy to see the wares he's peddling... one of my favefood! It's cheecheung fun (rice noodles) that came in pre-packaged form. Just need to steam or microwave them. How convenient!

Apparently all these while his family have been the producer and supplier of chee cheung fun. It is only a few days back they started to retail the pre-packages at a kiosk with the name Log 'n Roll.

There are quite a number of varieties of pre-packaged ones ranging from plain, dried shrimps, oats, emerald (dried shrimps and spring onions) and etc. All of them priced differently. I've got a pack of emerald for RM4.00. Inside has 8 rolls which is really value for money. The stall near my house sells similar stuff for RM1 per roll!

However, you'll need to buy the sauces separately though which came in tubs. They have sweet sauce (RM1.00), soy sauce, hoisin sauce and crispy prawn chilli (RM3.00). Hubby picked sweet sauce and crispy prawn chilli.

My ex-colleague recommended us to steam them as it will produce a softer roll. So I steamed them up for breakfast yesterday. The rolls practically glistened after steaming. I had mine with some soy sauce (my own one LOL) and crispy prawn chilli which is quiet HOT. The chee cheung fun is smoothhh.

Hubby had his with sweet sauce (sorry huh the pics looked like a mess pile of **** hehehe). It was okay but he said would have been better if there were more dried shrimps.

Overall, the chee cheung fun is smooth, conveniently packed and most importantly, it's reasonabily priced. The only thing now is we can get them from Midvalley Megamall at the moment. Have to give them some time before they start retailing them at more places. I don't remember seeing any halal logo on the pack plus there is no expiry date printed on the pack. Some minor hiccup but I doubt one would keep these for long hehe. Oh yeah, you can also have them done up with various sauces ie. cheese (I find it weird ok), mushroom etc to be eaten on the spot. I bought one pack to pai nien with another chee cheung fun lover. Must be her first to receive that for new year hehe. Will check with her for her verdict later.

Head on to Log 'n Roll kiosk to bring back some chee cheung fun to savour at home.